Newbie needs advice on good Space Opera novels!

Greetings! I am new to SF lit. and am in need of some good advice on some titles to check out, mostly space operas. Now I'm a big anime fan and I love Sci-fi and as I’ve come to find out specifically Space Opera and I love to read so I thought "Why not try some sci-fi novels?", to be honest the sci-fi section at B&N scares me hahaha, so I had another thought "Why not try a sci-fi forum?" so here I am! So to help show what I like here are some of the anime space opera titles I like (Sorry if they aren't exactly Space Opera):

-Macross
-Space Captain Harlock
-Galaxy Express 999 (the movie)
-Crest & Banner of the Stars
-Mobile Suit Gundam (the original movie trilogy)
-Cowboy Bebob
And I love the Original Star Wars trilogy (granted not anime but still space opera)

So any and all recommendations would be great and really helpful! Please and Thank you!

Thank you Mr. Kay for those titles and advice ^/_\^ I'll defiantly check them out and look through the forum for other such title~!

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Welcome to our Universe SuperZ96! Everyone has their own favorites and sooner or later some of the more veteran members of this website will be sure to weigh in. Knowing nothing about anime here are some of my favorites:

It's hard to say because I am not familiar with any of those anime titles. I would add to what has been said by suggesting Neal Asher. Probably beginning with The Skinner or Gridlinked. His books are more action oriented and would seem to be a good fit for an anime fan. (from what little I know of anime). It really depends on your level of comfort with literature.

I always suggest Iain Banks' Culture books when asked for space opera because they are my favorites, but they are not always the easiest reads.

Thanks to everyone who responded to this with your suggestions I will take all of them into consideration and check out those titles! Thanks Rob for the thread link! I think I have enough titles to keep me busy but if anyone has anything new to suggest then go for it!